Roughly 100,000 words.

Two mandatory warnings: The text in this post is superfluous, and there are 90+ pics. Continue at your own risk..

Every few years (more often if you're less set-in-your-ways than I am) you'll have an experience that falls outside the reasonable range of expectation. Meaning simply that what you expected and what you got did not match up.

That happened last week, and I'm still reeling a bit from it. I'm simply unsure of how to even begin processing all of the new sense data that was gathered. That uncertainty is a good, rare thing (for me) these days, as I've gotten into a bit of a rut with work and riding and a refresher was in order.

I'll spend months sorting and categorizing the experiences in my mind, but there's no need to wait to share the visuals.

Loading up the car, listening to a book, and just letting the countryside unfold as I creep closer to my destination has become a favorite form of therapy.








I'll do it if I have to, but covering ground at night (whether afoot, by bike, or even in a car) just cuts across my grain of late. How can I learn about a place if I cannot receive visual sense data from it?

(Yes, I had a lot of time to think on this last trip, and have been in major geek out mode ever since...)

So once the light fades from the sky I'll find a place to circle the wagon and then settle in til sunup. Cook a simple meal, read a different book, simply 'be' horizontal.

Waking, a short walk is in order before anything else. Checking in on the local residents, you might say.








Early morning light...




...and some of the things you see when wandering around engulfed by it.












Whom would *you* expect to see while crossing Coyote Wash?




Oo. Don't forget your galoshes.


Death. And then, life.
















This one flat stopped me in my tracks. Just stunning.




Not so much the former as the latter.


Aspirin, ibuprofen, morphine, and gin have all been known to cure what ails ya. For me, nothing is more restorative than time spent on alpine skinny trail with likeminded souls.






to be continued...